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(Adds British Embassy comment para 4, Humphrey note paras10-12)
By John Ruwitch and Adam Jourdan
SHANGHAI, July 4 (Reuters) - The United States is worriedthat its officials have been barred from attending the Aug. 7trial in China of British investigator Peter Humphrey and hisAmerican wife Yu Yingzeng after the couple were arrested lastyear following work they did for British drugmakerGlaxoSmithKline PLC.
The concerns, voiced by the U.S. embassy in Beijing, adds apolitical dimension to the trial, which could become anotherthorny issue between the two economic powers, already tusslingover areas ranging from cyber security and human rights toChinese policy in the South China Sea.
"We are concerned that consular officers will not be allowedto attend Ms. Yu's trial in August 2014 despite the fact thatunder the 1982 bilateral consular convention between our twocountries consular officials are permitted to attend suchtrials," U.S. Embassy spokesman Nolan Barkhouse said on Friday.
The British embassy also said it was "engaging" the Chineseauthorities about the need for a transparent and fair trial. China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to arequest for comment.
The trial of Humphrey and Yu is part of a tangled web ofprobes into drugmaker GSK, which Chinese police accused lastyear of funnelling up to 3 billion yuan ($482 million) throughtravel agencies to bribe doctors and officials in China.
The couple are on trial for illegally buying and sellingprivate information. The proceedings will be held behind closeddoors with consular officials and the couple's teenage sonbarred from attending, two family friends with knowledge of thematter told Reuters on Thursday.
ChinaWhys, the risk consultancy run by the couple, wasemployed by GSK in April 2013 to investigate an ex-employeesuspected of sending anonymous emails, including the circulationof an intimate video of former GSK China head Mark Reilly withhis girlfriend, as well as emails containing allegations ofwidespread bribery at the British drugmaker.
Three months later, authorities detained Humphrey and Yu.Chinese authorities have not openly made a link between GSK andthe case against ChinaWhys.
Reilly has been charged along with other GSK executives ofwidespread bribery and corruption, and could face decades in aChinese jail.
"CHEATED"
In a note written last year when he was already indetention, and seen by Reuters on Friday, Peter Humphrey said hefelt "cheated" by GSK, adding that the drugmaker had not sharedthe full details of the bribery allegations against themcontained in the 23 emails from an anonymous whistleblower.
"GSK only asked us to do a background investigation on thesuspected whistleblower. They never asked us to investigate theallegations and they did not tell us the details of theallegations," he said in the note.
Humphrey said he had seen the detailed allegations onlyafter the firm had completed its investigation. "I realized wehad been cheated because the allegations looked real," he added.
GSK said in a statement on Friday that the allegationsraised in the whistleblower's emails were "deeply concerning"and that the firm had zero tolerance for any kind of corruption.
It said internal probes had not been able to substantiatethe specific whistleblower allegations.
"GSK takes all whistle-blowing allegations very seriouslyand actively encourages whistle-blowers to come forward if theyhave concerns," the company said.
Corruption is endemic in the Chinese pharmaceutical market,where bribes are often used to smooth business ties withunderpaid doctors and hospitals which rely on drug sales forover 40 percent of their revenues. (Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING and BenHirschler in LONDON; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by MiralFahmy)
